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Can We Use This Crisis To Avert The Next One?
When speaking of the possibility of averting the worst consequences of climate change, most experts say that it will take a crisis in order for us to change our ways. It remains to be seen whether or not the coronavirus crisis will serve this purpose. While it is indeed a crisis, and it offered a few months of lessened dependence upon fossil fuels as everyone stayed home and out of their cars, whether or not it will provide for sustainable change is something that only time will tell.
Unfortunately, it appears as if the coronavirus crisis is merely the crisis to trigger the bigger crisis that will force us to make the changes to avert the crisis of climate change. In other words, the coronavirus crisis has certainly bred a new strain of fear into the population, but it has also caused people to double down on activities that it would be better to avert in order to cultivate a cleaner, more well-balanced planet. However, as we can see from the record-setting 33% drop in the U.S. GDP, it has set the stage for an economic collapse which could be what is necessary for humans to actually consider making changes that would provide the resilience that we do not currently have.
For instance, just as people had started to wake to the idiotic notion of making disposable straws out of plastic that won’t decompose for 200 years, and people either…
